In the process of manufacturing semiconductor devices, LCD panels, and others, there are hundreds of types of processing equipment for processing semiconductor substrates. A substrate carrier is typically used to hold a plurality of substrates to be carried between the processing equipment. In a single wafer process equipment, the substrates in the carrier are individually and sequentially picked up by a multi joint robot, and then moves through the semiconductor manufacturing process. In a batch process equipment, multiple substrates are processed at the same time, with or without the substrate carrier. The input stations for the processing equipment are standardized, designed for one specific design or a number of hybrid designs of substrate carriers. For example, a typical substrate carrier is designed to handle 25 substrates.
The fixed number of substrates in a substrate carrier is not desirable in certain cases. For example, sometimes only a few special substrates need to be processed, leaving the substrate carriers more than half empty. Sometimes a large number of substrates need to have the same process condition, but have to be separated to multiple carriers to be processed separately because of the limitation of number of substrates per carrier.